


Soft Edges

by wynnebat



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dreams and Nightmares, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Harry Potter & Tom Riddle Attend Hogwarts Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-26
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-07-17 22:57:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16105526
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: Harry sneaks into the Slytherin dorms one night in search of comfort. Tom's denial of his emotions loses the battle, but he'd lost the war months ago anyway.





	Soft Edges

The Slytherin dorms are creepier at night than in the daytime, Harry thinks as he creeps into the common room. He'd eavesdropped on the password a few days ago, and while it had hurt his pride to recite Malfoy's family motto, he'd persevered. The common room is empty at an hour that could soon be called insanely early morning instead of night. Harry's still careful as he tiptoes to the back of the common room, where the maze of dorm rooms is located. He passes the first year dorms, hears some yelling inside the second year boys' room, nothing from the third through sixth years. The seventh year boys' dorms are also mercifully quiet. Harry edges the door open, peering inside to double-check that all the bed curtains are pulled shut.

The bed to the very back of the room is Harry's target. There's no sticking charm on the curtains, which Harry doesn't find odd until he pulls one side open and gets a wand jammed against his throat.

"Ow!" Harry yelps a little too loudly for the silent room. "It's just me. Paranoid much? Any harder and you wouldn't have needed a spell to kill me."

"I don't need a spell to kill you," Tom replies, but he releases Harry from the sharp point of his wand and opens the curtain wide. Harry immediately accepts the unspoken invitation, climbing atop the bed and making room for himself in between the sea of books and scrolls on Tom's covers. His boyfriend is such a nerd, honestly. "What do you want?"

Harry shifts uncomfortably. It's one thing to get it into his head to sneak in here, but it's another thing altogether to actually tell Tom what he wants.

"Spit it out, Harry," Tom says. "I need to be able to demolish Granger during tomorrow's History exam." With a case of sudden suspicion, he gives Harry a careful look. "Did she send you in here to spy on me?"

"I couldn't possibly care less about the History exam," Harry replies. "No one cares about the History exam."

"Granger does, which is enough for me."

Tom looks so pleased in his manipulativeness that Harry doesn't say that Hermione only cares about the History exam because she thinks Tom cares about it. The knowledge would probably make Tom even more smug, if that's even possible. Harry searches his mind for a way to ask for what he wants. Tom may be his boyfriend, but he's not the affectionate sort. Harry figures they reacted to their crappy childhoods in completely opposite ways: Harry by being easy with affection, Tom by all but hissing if anyone tries to touch him without written permission.

Still, sex is Tom's usual exception. Harry doesn't want to fuck and Tom seems busy anyway, but, "Can we fuck, but like, platonically?"

Tom looks at him like he's lost his mind. It's possible that Harry might have. His nightmare had been so wretched that he'd lit the whole dorm room with his panicked, overpowered _Lumos_ spell, then hid in the bathroom for ten minutes until he stopped hyperventilating. It's an old nightmare, one he hasn't shared with Tom for fear of being laughed at, but he still snuck inside to see if Tom would be willing to comfort him anyway.

Tom's eye twitches as he says, "Are you trying to convince me to cuddle with you?"

"Is it working?" Harry crawls closer to him, doing his best to avoid crumbling the dozen pieces of parchment laid out all around the bed.

"No," Tom tells him. A wave of his wand and the papers fly into a bundle, landing on Tom's side of the bed.

With the space now open to him, Harry grins and curls up against Tom's side, sneaking the pillow out from behind Tom's back and placing it under his head. "Love you."

"You are an affront to my Slytherin pride," Tom tells him very seriously as Harry wraps an arm around his waist.

Harry just cuddles closer in response. "I know, I know. I'll be very quiet."

When Harry wakes up in the morning, he finds himself under the covers, still tucked into Tom's side. The books have been cleared away and his boyfriend is asleep with a peaceful expression on his face, though Harry can see the tiredness lingering around his eyes. He falls asleep again before he can do much more than hope Tom does achieve the highest scores. It's probably terrible, considering Hermione is a dear friend, but Hermione isn't the one who's thoroughly won Harry's heart.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I'm also on [tumblr](https://crownwithoutstones.tumblr.com/).


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